Softball: Time-limit rule gives Oregon City 3-2 win over Sunset

CLACKAMAS – As reigning league champions hit hard by graduation, Oregon City and Sunset are looking for answers from their rebuilt lineups early in the softball season.

When the teams shook hands Monday after their nonleague game in a tournament at Hood View Park, though, a bigger question remained: Who won?

The game was halted after 6 ½ innings due to a tournament time limit, nullifying a two-run rally by Sunset in the top of the seventh inning and giving Oregon City a 3-2 win. The rule to revert back to the score of the previous inning wasn't immediately known by the coaches and players.

“It's a win in our book,” said Sunset junior Jessie Moore, who pitched her team to the Class 6A final the last two seasons.

Both teams found something they liked from the game, which was played in cool, showery and sometimes blustery conditions at the artificial-turf complex.

Oregon City – making its season debut (the Pioneers lost to Pendleton 8-3 later Monday) – started fast against a first-team, all-state pitcher in Moore by scoring three runs on four hits in the first inning. The Pioneers also received a solid performance from junior pitcher Joscelyn Park, who is bidding to become the team's ace after the departure of four-year starter McKenzie Marshall.

“I feel a little pressure to live up to it, but I worked all summer and all winter on pitching,” said Park, who gave up eight hits, struck out one and walked one. “So I'm hoping I can fill those shoes.”

For Sunset (1-2), Moore settled down after a rocky first inning and retired the last 13 batters she faced, pitching a five-hitter with six strikeouts and one walk. And the Apollos' offense, held to three hits in the first two games, gradually came to life.

“We haven't been able to get outside, so it's all machine work,” Sunset coach Spencer Mills said. “I'm not worried about our hitting at all. We lost seven starters, so we're trying to get them acclimated to being starters now.”

Oregon City took control in the first inning as junior Rachel Roberts singled, junior Melissa Taylor doubled, senior Haley Rayburn followed with an RBI single and Park drove in two runs with another single. Getting to Moore early boosted the Pioneers, who lost to her 4-3 in the state quarterfinals last year.

“Going into this game, we were like, 'This is our chance,'” Roberts said. “We got the bats going, which gave us a lot of confidence going into the field, making plays. It really carried us through the game.”

Sunset scored one run in the fourth on a throwing error and made it 3-2 in the sixth on a sacrifice fly by senior Tasha Silvius. The Apollos took the lead in the seventh on a two-out, two-run double by junior Beverly Miller, but it went for naught.

Moore, who threw a two-hit shutout in a 5-0 win over Forest Grove earlier Monday, is encouraged by the team's progress.

“I definitely think we still have the ability to win the Metro (League),” Moore said. “I have no doubt in this team that we can do the exact same thing and continue the legacy that those girls left.”